Cask of Potions
Maybe you just purchased a “Grab Bag” of interesting looking vials from a shady merchant in a dark alley. Perhaps you found a bunch of bottles and flasks from a magician’s workshop. Heck, you might have just put a few magical ingredients together and hoped for the best. Whatever the case may be, When you open a bottle from a Cask of Potions and drink its contents, roll+ CON.
• On a 10+, You receive the effects of option 1d6 from the potions on the first list.
• On a 7-9, You receive the effects of option 1d4 from the potions on the first list.
• On a miss, You guessed wrong, and the potion you drank is 1d4 of the options on the second list.
LIST 1
1: Antitoxin
2: Lesser Healing Potion (6 HP)
3: Potion of Fire Resistance
4: Stoneskin Potion (+2 Armor Ongoing, but -1 Ongoing to DEX)
5: Potion of Luck (Reroll the next failed roll, or maybe just +1 forward)
6: Potion of Vitality (Heal 10 HP and 1 Debility)
LIST 2
1/4: Firewater (1d4 damage ignores armor)
2/5: Poison (1d4 of the options from the Thief)
3/6: Weakness (Gain a debility)
4: 2d6 from the above (Yeah, you got the worst of the worst)
*Note that the above options and effects are open to your interpretation, and can be changed to better fit the scenario.*
Wild! I like. Gives me a ton of new ideas, you’ve opened my eyes to an entirely new way to do items.
Hmmmm, im thinking a playing card deck with mystical powers enchanted on each one. Oh yea, this will be fun
Ill even give the player a deck of cards! Boom!
Robert Doe I’m glad it was able to inspire you for your own games! To be honest, i was expecting a little backlash as it’s not completely “play to find out what happens” once you start adding tables of options
Mark Weiss what do you mean it’s not “play to find out?” Random tables are totally playing to find out.
The only argument I have against random tables in Dungeon World is that they sometimes make it hard to begin and end in the fiction. But this move totally has that covered, especially with the intro. The concept is great.
Some actual critique:
1) why roll +Con? Seems like it’d be +Int to identify a potion.
2) it could be worded more clearly, particularly the 6- result and the double numbers on the second list. I think I get what it’s doing, but it took a couple readings.
I can imagine a variant of this that is more like the ‘traditional’ rules.
When you open a bottle from a Cask of Potions and drink its contents, roll+ CON.
• On a 10+, You receive a mostly positive effect. Describe how it’s supposed to work and the GM will tell you what happens
• On a 7-9, You receive a somewhat positive effect. Describe how it’s supposed to work and the GM will tell you what happens, with a significant added complication
The intention is that the player is free to describe what they want to have happen, but the GM decides on the actual mechanical effect. The somewhat cagey language is intended to give an ‘out’ if the player gets especially cheeky with their desired effect. This is a very different flavor, though, since it’s not as much of a random grab-bag.
The miss is left open (as usual), as this gives the GM full flexibility to make a (probably hard) move of their choosing.
Jeremy Strandberg
1) The CON roll was because it was more along the lines of how YOU dealt with the effects. Kinda as if all of the potions were supposed to be healing, but maybe the magical ingredients work differently, even inversely, in different people. It could be INT, especially with the whole “you put together the potion yourself” intro. (Plus, i personally believe that there are too many rolls that require INT and WIS, and not enough that ask for CON)
2) Yeah, it was tough trying to word it in a way that actually made sense even remotely
How about:
1: Firewater (1d4 damage ignores armor)
2-3: Poison (1d4 of the options from the Thief)
4-5: Weakness (Gain a debility)
6: Roll twice on this table, treating any further 6s you roll as 1s (yeah, you got the worst of the worst)
Robert Rendell Whatever makes sense to you. This was originally a way to express a bunch of potions my players found in a wizard’s lair, rather than just saying “You found some Healing potions and some other ones, spout lore”
I really like the modified Item. I plan on using it. Here is the full item that I plan on using:
Cask of Potions 1 weight, fragile, 10 uses
This is a satchel of random potions that were stolen from a wizard’s lab or a potion shop. A pure snatch and grab. Due to this the potions are not labeled. Roll+con when you drink a potion. A wizard may perform a Speak Lore Move to try and identify the potion for you, doing an Aid Another roll+Int instead of Bond.
• On a 12+, You receive a double potion. Describe the intended effect and the GM will describe an additional add on or improvement of the effect.
• On a 10+, You receive a mostly positive effect. Describe how it’s supposed to work and the GM will tell you what happens
• On a 7-9, You receive a somewhat positive effect. Describe how it’s supposed to work and the GM will tell you what happens, with a significant added complication
• On a 6 or less, You chose poorly, Something Bad happens up to the GM. It could be as harmless as drinking a potion of Slipperyness or it could be Poison. Are you feeling Lucky.
Matrix Forby Well, if you’re just drinking a random potion (which is what i wanted in the original move) you wouldn’t know what the intended effect is.